There has been developed a two-part plastic quilting button as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,174, which is adapted to be easily and very rapidly inserted in a work piece and locked together. There have also been developed machines for inserting the foregoing quilting button and one of the major aims thereof is high speed operation. Such machines, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,359, and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 748,132, are capable of inserting and locking a quilting button every second or less and thus it will be appreciated that button drive means and feed means operate very rapidly. This high speed of operation imposes stringent requirements upon moving parts, particularly in view of the very considerable force applied to drive quilting buttons through chair pads, lounge pads and the like.
It has been found that the feed, placement, and release of the male button part can be improved to provide even greater insurance against malfunction of the quilting machine. In particular, the present invention materially decreases the possibility of misalignment of a male button part as it is driven toward and into a female button part, so as to prevent possible jamming of a button part in the machine.